Warco: an FPS where you hold a camera instead of a gun

Warco is a game that puts you in the role of a war correspondent filming the …

Warco is a first-person game where players shoot footage instead of a gun. A work in progress at Brisbane-based studio Defiant Development, the game is a collaboration of sorts; Defiant is working with both a journalist and a filmmaker to create a game that puts you in the role of a journalist embedded in a warzone. Ars spoke with Defiant's Morgan Jaffit to learn more about this political game disguised as an FPS.

The game was actually the brainchild of someone outside of the studio. Tony Maniaty, an Australian journalist who has reported from regions like East Timor and post-Soviet Eastern Europe, envisioned the game as a sort of training simulator. He then began working on the project with filmmaker Robert Connolly, who directed the film Balibo, a political thriller about the deaths of Australian journalists during the conflict in East Timor in 1975. Eventually Jaffit and Defiant were brought into the project.

"It's been a great partnership, with Tony giving the game a great grounding in the real world issues of war journalism, Robert lending his structural and cinematic eye, and Defiant helping to channel that into something that's interactive and engaging," Jaffit told Ars.

"It offers a new perspective on a familiar theme, which enables us to use the tools and techniques of other FPSes to build a completely different kind of narrative and experience. From a design perspective, that's what excited me."

The game itself—the title of which is actually short for "war correspondent"—follows the story of journalist Jesse DeMarco. Players will experience the process of filming conflicts, going into dangerous situations armed with nothing but a camera. They will then edit the footage into a compelling news story. The scenarios range from intense bursts of action to quieter moments as you discuss the events of the day with fellow journalists in a hotel. Though the main mechanic will be filming the action, Warco is also very much about choice.

Warco

"It's also about navigating through a morally gray world and making decisions that have human impact," he explained. "It's about finding the story you want to tell, as each of our environments is filled with different story elements you can film and combine in your own ways. It's both a story telling engine and an action adventure with a new perspective."

The scenarios are designed to mirror the recent tumultuous events in the Middle East and North Africa, in situations cribbed from Maniaty's real-world experiences in the field.

A game that looks a lot like a first-person shooter but doesn't actually allow players to fire any bullets could potentially be difficult to market, and one unnamed publisher recently told the studio that "it's a hard sell to executives to suggest an FPS with no shooting, but this is definitely the sort of game we should be making, as an industry."

Warco has been in development for four months and Defiant is currently in talks with several publishers to try and bring the game to a wide audience. When that will actually happen, and on what platforms, hasn't yet been determined.

"We're optimistic that we'll find a way to make the project work as a commercial reality."

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99 Reader Comments

Very interesting concept, but how do you "score" or "win"? What separates this from FPS spectator mode? What decisions are you making that can have an impact in the game world, and how are those decisions evaluated by the game engine?

This is an interesting project and i see the potential as I am sure many do but marketing it to the public might be difficult. People are used to shoot and kill, this is shoot, edit and report. A demo if anything would definitely be needed and some huge marketing campaign would be needed for people to look at this. I applaud the originality of this possible title.

I don't see why it would be such a tough sell... Well maybe if they're looking for MW2 sales figures and surely if they only market it to HARDCOREXTREME gamers, but people aren't just used to 'shoot and kill' - they're just as used to the Sims, city builders, bejeweled, Guitar Hero etc. If you can't sell a game because it doesn't involve killing people, you're doing it wrong.

As for the gameplay, I am somewhat sceptical. It looks like the action will be heavily scripted (and I have a hard time seeing how you could avoid that), so what happens if you fail (die or don't get the good shots)... replaying the exact same sequence again would imo completely undermine the 'newsreporter' part. It would feel like a studio session.

from what they are saying multiple events are going on, do you film team A committing crimes in the name of good or do you focus on Team B being the bad guys as usual?

if you manage to be able to trudge on through the the game i imagine you will see a spinning newspaper stopping to reveal a headline reflecting your slant on the news.

Also, I suppose where to position yourself to get good video while not getting fragged, working with local nationals, security teams, paying bribes, etc. Lots of interesting elements to explore, if it's designed well.

I don't see why it would be such a tough sell... Well maybe if they're looking for MW2 sales figures and surely if they only market it to HARDCOREXTREME gamers, but people aren't just used to 'shoot and kill' - they're just as used to the Sims, city builders, bejeweled, Guitar Hero etc. If you can't sell a game because it doesn't involve killing people, you're doing it wrong.

As for the gameplay, I am somewhat sceptical. It looks like the action will be heavily scripted (and I have a hard time seeing how you could avoid that), so what happens if you fail (die or don't get the good shots)... replaying the exact same sequence again would imo completely undermine the 'newsreporter' part. It would feel like a studio session.

I don't think the Sims crowd is going to be up for realistic war violence (especially not with what's going on in the real world), so it might indeed be a tough sell--not hardcore enough for the MW2 timmies, and too hardcore for the casual-gaming moms.

The gameplay scenario you're describing somewhat skeptically might be able to be avoided much like Heavy Rain did--make your actions have lasting, interesting consequences that don't necessarily equate to total failure, and have good storytelling that discourages people from wanting to save and reload all the time.

Yeah, for a game focused on cinematography you would have thought the visuals to be better.Until they get someone on board to fix the awful running mocaps or institute some engaging visuals such as depth of field, this one has big bargain bin written all over it.

I'm more interested in this than I have been in any FPS not from Valve ever. Seriously, hard to market? You've got a whole market of people who are sick of mindless FPS games over and over and over and over.

from what they are saying multiple events are going on, do you film team A committing crimes in the name of good or do you focus on Team B being the bad guys as usual?

if you manage to be able to trudge on through the the game i imagine you will see a spinning newspaper stopping to reveal a headline reflecting your slant on the news.

Also, I suppose where to position yourself to get good video while not getting fragged, working with local nationals, security teams, paying bribes, etc. Lots of interesting elements to explore, if it's designed well.

Ill only buy this is you can hire mercenaries or put your camera away and grab your AR-15 to ''increase your chances of getting a story''. You could kill civilians yourself and blame it on a given faction!

Yeah, for a game focused on cinematography you would have thought the visuals to be better.Until they get someone on board to fix the awful running mocaps or institute some engaging visuals such as depth of field, this one has big bargain bin written all over it.

The problem with this game is that no one plays games to get a reality check. We do it to escape reality. It's a noble idea, but the market is going to be very very limited. It may do well as a curiosity if priced low (I'm talking 10 bucks or so), but much more than and it's doomed to obscurity.

The problem with this game is that no one plays games to get a reality check. We do it to escape reality. It's a noble idea, but the market is going to be very very limited. It may do well as a curiosity if priced low (I'm talking 10 bucks or so), but much more than that will doom it to obscurity.

market will be high school teachers trying to teach teens to look at news objectively.

The problem with this game is that no one plays games to get a reality check. We do it to escape reality. It's a noble idea, but the market is going to be very very limited. It may do well as a curiosity if priced low (I'm talking 10 bucks or so), but much more than that will doom it to obscurity.

So you're saying the reality gamers try to escape involve running around on a battlefield with a camera?

I'm a videographer working for a demolition/enviromental remediation company. I spend my days shooting photo and video then editing the final product down into 30 and 60 second commercials up to 30 minute film presentations. Some of my footage has ended up in presentations to Congressional Committees.

I find this game concept a great idea and I hope they can market it. What would make it exciting would be the ability to die from gunfire, explosions, and even capture by the bad guys. They should add missions where you are required to film specific things and have the option to sneak around if needed. So much potential.

I'm more interested in this than I have been in any FPS not from Valve ever. Seriously, hard to market? You've got a whole market of people who are sick of mindless FPS games over and over and over and over.

I completely agree, I know I have been sick of the same FPS crap for awhile now. Portal and Portal 2 were nice side steps from the norm and I am looking forward to seeing where this goes as I think it will be from a perspective many people dont consider and probably should be aware of. FPS games seem to try to make war fun. Which it really isn't.

Killing Time wrote:

market will be high school teachers trying to teach teens to look at news objectively.

Well, to be fair there are a bunch of "FPS" who succesfully manage to create an interesting game without the gimmick of killing ppl, i.e. Portal, Amnesia and in a lesser degree Mirror's Edge, so I will give this one at least the benefit of the doubt.

This is an excellent idea, the graphics my be a given but that's alright, if they can make this whole idea work i can see it being a very good new IP to the FPS series with is pretty funny that there calling this a FPS a very nice play on words, if i say so my self.

This could be very interesting, but i think the team needs a really good scriptwriter to do it properly. Else it's, imho, in great risk of being only magnified cheap drama. We all know only in theory - except of course those who really went to the battlefield - how terrible a war can be. I think just throwing at me crying kids and gore is only an exercise in bad taste. I've never been there, i don't know how it feels to walk a street knowing that death could be waiting one step ahead. If the intent of this game is to channel those feelings, what really means to be there, then clever gameplay and graphics imho are not going to be sufficient, and a good, really good script is absolutely necessary to get people involved.

chances that this ends up LA Noir-esque where nothing you do or don't do really matters to the plot, you're just along for the ride?

I really like the concept and if they can turn it into a game that works, I'll definitely give it a go. I can see a lot of tension in having to make decisions that would get you in good with one faction in order to get the story but then the other side wants you dead. If it ends up being a truly dynamic game where what you film and how you get the shot makes a difference to the experience, then that will be great. Embedded or non-embedded? Play nice with the rebels or show everything from a pro-gov slant? But I can see it end up being crap where you just follow the path and "shoot" things and then you go on to the next level.

IF the game ends up being good, I can see a lot of possibilities for add-ons and DLC where your reputation affects the next assignment. Imagine showing up to cover yet another war and the government won't talk to you because they know you're pro-rebel or your fellow reporters won't help you because you're a government stooge, all based on how you covered the last war.

The problem with this game is that no one plays games to get a reality check. We do it to escape reality. It's a noble idea, but the market is going to be very very limited. It may do well as a curiosity if priced low (I'm talking 10 bucks or so), but much more than and it's doomed to obscurity.

Yeah, that's why no one makes movies or books that seriously look at issues/human situations either. Movies are for 'splosions and books are for ... uh ... doorstops? And music, like Ben Kuchera pointed out, is for dancing.

Good grief.

Janne wrote:

We had no problems with immersion with games like Quake, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Dungeon Master... And you are not interested in any other qualities the game has to offer because "the graphics suck".

What sad times we are living...

I just finished a 100 hour Dwarf Fortress run, but I agree with JesusInBeta that this game needs better graphics. Sorry, but graphics really do matter sometimes, especially when everyone is aware that they could be better. This game isn't about "tight gameplay" or something (it's not Super Meat Boy), it is about the experience of being a journalist. A really, really important part of that experience is what you are looking at. They could make this a really good game with what they have now, but it would definitely be better with good graphics. Putting together a clip of generic looking smudges is nowhere near as interesting as one with highly detailed faces, destruction, wounds, facial expressions, etc. We're not living in "sad times" because people want stuff to look good.

I really like the idea of this game. It's too bad that there's no chance that enough money could be put into it to make it something really special.

Also, this looks like something that would benefit from being pretty realistic. The journalist in the video was just WAY too brave. I've never seen footage like that on the news before. I think he even got shot at one point (blood on the screen, not the camera's screen), and just ran around and kept shooting. I'm pretty sure most people would fall down at that point and need help. The PC should be super fragile compared to soldiers, and especially compared to PC game soldiers. That would create some great tension between getting a great shot and avoiding getting injured.

This reminds me of Fatal frame, the my first entry into the Non-shooting FPS genre, i played it on the PS2. I enjoyed it big time. As a matter of fact, i should go find me some used PS2 copies. Anyway, I'll be keeping an eye on this games progress.